Replication and mere replication

Replication is the heart of science–but there are many types of replication and they fulfil different epistemic functions in science. Philosophers of science have argued that some may lie closer to the ‘heart’ than others. Scientists themselves also hold a range of views about the importance of replication, and these do not necessarily map on to the philosophical distinctions! I’ll discuss social science research that exposes this spectrum of opinion, concluding that whether scientists rate replication as critical to science or not, is dependent on: a) who is replicating whose research and b) the perceived motivation for the replication.